Inspired by {House of Jade}

 This week Kia has chosen the House of Jade as the inspiration destination and I found this pin with the gingerbread cloche fairly quickly and made my self stop looking. ( its a deep rabbit hole this week) 

 I started with cutting this Tim Holtz Bell Jar with Pedestal die and (cut the base 3 times for thickness) and then the top with vellum cardstock once. ( I did tuck that lid into between the layers of the base pieces) and the kraft cardstock was inked with Vintage photo DOX and has some Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white streaked across it. 

I dug out every "house" gingerbread die I had along with cake stands and such, I really thought I might do a trio of things like the pin but, the scale just did not work. in that photo above the Large gingerbread house is an Hero Arts die. ( the MFT things one I own is even larger) that bitty one is actually a cookie also a Tim Holtz Sizzix die. 

So, then I decided that it needed something green to tuck with it as the house had a little too much white space around it and I grabbed this Honey Bee die Market cart Christmas add on knowing the tree on it would be scaled smaller than any of my actual "Christmas tree dies" know what I mean? the gingerbread house got some crystal stickles as did the tree branches along with some more Bleed proof white, I did let the paintbrush wiggle so it would give it a little more of that iced by hand look. 

The lace is vintage, the sentiment here is from the Lili of the Valley Christmas sentiment tags done on a scrap of watercolor paper and also inked with the same DOX. the bitty brad is from Recollections and this has foam dot's under it also. 

 The stripe textured bazzill was also inked with some vintage photo and the card base here is textured woodgrain from Ellen Hutson. This is actually A2 in real life and I think I am going to keep playing with this idea and do a few others. Maybe with Christmas trees and maybe more color. we'll see. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

A Christmas Sketch

 This week the sketch challenge at SCS caught my eye and I came home early (rainy day) and I did not have to go out side and water so, I decided to give this challenge a try. 

I had hit print on the sketch at work before I left because, that is the only way I can get even close on a sketch challenge is to have it in front of me. I started with Stamping that Impression Obsession Wooden Door Frame with some Versafine Clair Artic blue ink on white neenah and then proceeded to add some Distress Oxide inks over that to age it. Antique Linen, Weathered wood, Evergreen bough & Vintage photo. I did cut that out with scissors and cut out the plain center of the door to make it a square frame. I used a grey fineliner pen to add a little bit of detailing to the hinges and door handle and then later when I was adding gold sparkle watercolor paint to the berries on the holly panel I added some gold to the center of the hinges and the handle also ( but, I think it mostly faded into all that ink) I actually used some papers right out of the pads for this so, I left them on the table so I could remember to say what they were. The young elf/deer image is a corner of a piece of the paper from the Prima pad and the faded plaid & Christmas collage prints were from the Hobby Lobby Vintage Christmas pad. The velvet ric rac is only glued to the top not wrapped around because, its kinda thick so. I did end up having to put the door panel on foam dots to raise it steady/flat over that. 

I didn't really see the flower part of that sketch, my brain seen it as a small circle on top with layers so, I dug in my little box of previously diecut tags and pulled out this white round one and that bitty red one ( an old SU one that came that way before people owned dies) the Believe metal tag is something from Tim Holtz and it has one of those gold goosebumps covering up the hole. I was so thrilled to see that lawn fawn came out with red hemp string. I may have to order another spool before I forget because, I can totally see my self using that All.the.time. :) That holly folder that was used on the old green WC scrap panel is from Sizzix Basic Grey powdered Sugar & snowglobe set ( I am not sure which folder is what name but, the other folder is a stripe) That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Loose flowers

 This week Linda is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing loose wildflowers watercolors from Liesl's Art Studio. I loved the fact that there were blurry distance blooms in the scene and the variety of blooms in the foreground. So, I started with a piece of Arches cold press cut to 4 1/4 ish by 5 1/2" ish. and I knew there was no way to squeeze the scale of those blooms into something that would fit on a card front.

So, instead of trying to recreate her flowers I kept the idea of loose blooms with the variety of brighter colors moving across the paper. 

And I just kept adding to it, but I had to laugh at my self most of the flowers turned out to have the same shape.

And I just decided to keep going as I didn't have time to start over again. And then I decided it needed some splatters.

And I drug a wet brush through some of the splatters at the bottom to smoosh more of that brighter green around. This did not have a ton of water on it but, it did warp a little so, I decided to die cut it with a curved cap Memory box die and let it sit in the big shot pressing for a while.

The pink/brown ribbon tied around the bottom is from Martha Stewart (a long time ago) and the Happy Anniversary sentiment is from the Stampin' Up! teeny tiny wishes set. its tied onto the ribbon with some natural hemp string. The stripe printed paper is from Graphic45 and the distressed looking text print is unknown. The finished size of this one is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by.

A Cowboy Christmas

 You may not know this but, I have lusted after this old Stampin' Up! stamp set ( Wild Wild West) for nearly as long as I have been collecting old stamps. When I first started buying used stamps on the bay this set sold for between 75.00 and 100.00 dollars... and I said I would never pay that much money for a used stamp. during that time frame I did have a couple of PSX botanicals that were over 30.00 if that gives you an idea. and the last maybe 10 years or so, this stamp set seems to start at 150 and go up. I've had a set I've been watching a few months that they did lower the start price from 250.00 down to 150 but, I just shook my head over it. And hubs knew it. 

and this set ( not the one I was watching ) arrived in the mail last week. if you heard any squealing I will say it may have come from over here. My first thought was you should see if he will work for a Christmas card. and I kept trying to think of which tree should go into the scene. 

to start with I grabbed this scrap of script paper and stamped him with some Pinecone versafine and then added a first layer of Daniel Smith watercolors to "Da Man" as he is known. 

A few more layers of paints and I started looking at Christmas papers. and they were just too Christmas-y. so, I seen this sheet of Basic grey stripe in the "browns" file folder and thought the colors were pretty close to how I had painted him. after a lot of over thinking, I used an Memory Box pinpoint cap die to cut the arch window into the sheet and then layered him behind that. The pine boughs here were cut from some Die Cuts with a View textured paper and then the bitty bow is from the Spellbinders Parcel & Post Christmas Decorations set. That lace is vintage and the chipboard sentiment is from Tim Holtz. ( I have a plastic container of his chipboard things and I did not save any of the packaging for them, when I cave and buy one it just gets opened and poured into the container. Those big photo corners are from Heidi Swapp and there is some Vintage Photo distress ink on the edges of them and the window opening of the archway here. I did link this up with the September Christmas card challenge going on now for the Fan Club members that you can see here. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Anniversary Bears

 Hubs parents will have their 65th wedding anniversary later this week. Can you imagine? :) She happens to collect teddy bears among other things so, I have quietly gathered a pile of bear stamps intending to make cards for her with them and I think time has just gotten away from me. So, yay for me I dug one out. 

This is Grenville & Beatrice are best friends from Uptown Rubber stamps, stamped on some smooth Arches hot press watercolor paper with some Morning Mist ink. I did decide to add some grey to the fur as people married that long are actually in their 80's. This was first layers of paints. 

After a little more paint I added some sparkle gelly roll pen stardream to the dots on her gown and the centers of their eyeglasses. 

The image panel was die cut with an Stitched rectangle from the Waffle flower lacy layers A7 set and its up on foam tape with some Antique linen DOX ink on the edges. The lace here is vintage and it kind of reminded me of the lace edging on her gown. The sentiment here is from Hero Arts and I am debating adding a small flower or something to the corner of the A where it did not stamp all the way. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {DIY Inspired}

 Happy Friday everyone, this week Julie has chosen the DIY inspired site as the inspiration challenge destination. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards here where I found this shot of hanging wreaths I think this was a wedding thing but, I cannot remember now and they have a bunch of joint boards. (where other people are all pinning things to the same board) 

I had recently pulled this Juniper set out from The Greetery a while back because, I was cutting trees and pine sprigs and thought I might cut some of these since I have not played with them as of yet and so, I also decided to use some Strathmore Mixed media paper as it will take a little water and its smooth. (thinner than good watercolor paper)

Which lead to cutting some pine branch sprigs also trying for a mix of needles into the wreath shape.

I started out giving the juniper sprigs a wash of Holbein Shadow green (right side) and the pine sprigs some Green Apatite Genuine.

the thing with the mixed media paper is the white tends to show through the paint and it takes a lot more paint darker to get something not so white so, I ended up adding some Jadite green over the top of the shadow green (right) and then some Undersea green over the apatite genuine.

When I started using some glue dots with the first round of sprigs on a piece of Hobby Lobby crepe paper I thought it had holes in the left and bottom sides so, I cut two more and added paint to them.I just trimmed that crepe paper in the paper trimmer not a die as I did not want it to lose its dimension and shape texture. 

I did end up backing that with some white washed wood grain print ( maybe Micheals?) maybe Hobby lobby ( its thin) and the natural hemp string is tied in a bow and then the drop pieces were tucked in to make it look like it was hanging from the top. I am not sure what I am going to do with this as of yet so, I left off the words but, I am leaning towards Christmas rather than say a wedding type card theme. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Quirky Birds

 This week Kia is sharing this video on a quirky bird seen here on YouTube. Called lets paint a quirky bird from Diane Antone Studios.

My first thought was, maybe do two birds facing each other as they could be having a snarky conversation. So, I did sketch two loose bird shapes in the notebook of Strathmore cotton watercolor paper I have and started a layer of paint leaving a large space for the eye.

first round of paint on the other bird.

a little more paint, including feet and plumage on the head for the bird on the right.

After that paint had dried I did dig out my watercolor pencils and added some of them to them.

 I remembered reading she thought her bird was mixed media because of the pencils but, I thought well you may as well add ink to the mix and I picked an Elegant writer pen as I know them to be water reactive and changing colors as the water mixes with the ink. 

a few white gel pen doodles joined the party here.

and it finished (remains) like so in the notebook. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by